Judith Butler's postmodern existentialism : a critical analysis

Bucher ascertains that Butler's description of the temporalized process of structuration, which seeks to avoid recourse to political voluntarism, or the sovereign intentionality of the autonomous individual, yields powerful insights into social identity. He asserts further that Butler's description of the dominant heterosexual culture in terms of melancholia, and her insights into the structures of repetition and difference that make up the social conventions that produce cultural norms, represent important resources in thinking about contemporary cultural conflicts.

An econometric analysis of the determinants of fertility for China, 1952-2000

This study investigates the determinants of the fertility rate in China over the 1952-2000 period. Consistent with theory, the key explanatory variables in our fertility model are real per capita income, infant mortality rate, female illiteracy and female labour force participation rates. The long-run results and the test for cointegration are based on the Johansen (1988) and Johansen & Juselius (1990) approach. Our long-run results conform to theory in that all variables appear with their expected signs, and the dummy variable used to capture the effects of the family planning policy indicates that in the years of the policy, fertility rates have been falling by around 10-12%. Our results suggest that socio-economic development - consistent with the traditional structural hypothesis - played a key role in China's fertility transition.